We are doing a Viking river cruise next year. Trying to find a listing of excursions outside of MyVikingJourney we can look at. Also not seeing any excursions for Lucerne extension. Was told by someone to book at hotel when we arrive and was also told to book ahead (but not sure where if not listed in MyViking Journey). Anyone do the Pearls of Switzerland 13 hour tour? Where and when did you book?
Posted by
Green Bay
21117 posts
You can look at reviews of that tour on cruise critic.
Are in Basel before your cruise or after? Have you bought airline tickets yet?
Last year, I recommended friends get a hotel room in Luzern, and buy Saver Day Passes for excursions to Rigi and Engelberg. You can buy Saver Day Passes up to 6 months in advance for 52 CHF. Then for that get a whole day of travel in Switzerland.
Posted by
The Heartland USA
8946 posts
emsmomm, when we did the Viking Rhine cruise, we made our own arrangements for train to Luzern and hotel there for much, much, much less than the cost of the Viking excursion. Yes we booked a hotel ahead of time. Train tickets were bought at the train station in Basel, the day of. You dont have to do any of that through Viking. It was easy to do on our own.
Because Viking booked our air, prior to the trip, we paid for the "deviation" and they made our return reservations for three days later from Zurich. The day before the boat docked in Basel, the staff asked for anyone who needed additional travel assistance to let them know. There were many of us who needed taxis to the train station in Basel. The taxis were waiting for all of us dockside, with our names and destinations. Bought train tickets from the kiosk at the station. It was about 1.5 hours to Luzern. We went right to the hotel we booked, toured around the area for three days, and then took the train to the Zurich airport to get home.
If you need help on finding hotel recommendations (we stayed at Hotel Des Alpes, across the road from the rail station in Luzern), or what to do when you are there, get a good guidebook that will help explain how things work. You dont need Viking to manage this, or to be on an organized and expensive tour. Unless you choose to do that, and pay for it.
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